Displays of Courage
This Wednesday, Branden Durst displayed some courageous acts of reaching out to the community of WBCSD to improve communication.
When our school board meeting went to Executive Session, he presented himself outside where many of the people who were hostile to him, had gathered. Unannounced, he came with his wife and children, to answer questions that the community might have. Unfortunately, many of the questions were shot at him without waiting to hear his whole answers. He kept having to circle back to what he was trying to say.
When asked about closing of schools, he tried to answer that there were three ways to deal with the budget. One was looking at the number of schools, which does put us above what the state funding is for school buildings. But, this was NOT his preferred solution in that the schools here seemed to match the community needs.
He was not allowed to continue, without another question being shouted out to him. When he started to give good answers to that, more questions were shouted out before he could complete them. Again and again that happened for about half of an hour. Meanwhile, parts of the crowd that were impressed with his answers or his bravery started leaving.
Another act of courage was from the chairman of our school board, Trustee Keith Rutledge. During the public part of the school board meeting, he stated:
“We must focus on improving our professionalism, improving our transparency, and most importantly improving our results in the task to which we are Constitutionally bound, namely to provide for the stability of a republican form of government by maintaining free public common schools. I have dedicated my personal time and energy to that task and invite all the members of this Board, the administration of the district, and our teachers and staff to hold that task as our common priority.
Thank you for your dedication and focus on our Constitutional duty.”
Maureen Paterson
Priest River
